三种欧盟概念及其对应的欧洲公民社会角色

本文认为,公民社会的概念不仅是模棱两可的,而且是与欧洲政治实体的本质特征的不同形象联系在一起的。正因为如此,有人认为公民社会在欧盟发挥着政治性的作用,是欧盟民主的标志,笔者对此难以认同。笔者建立了一个分析框架,总结出欧盟的三个彼此相异的概念,并分析了在每一个概念中,公民社会在推动欧盟民主化进程中的不同作用。通过实证分析,笔者揭示出一些潜藏于袁象下的观念,在这些观念的推动下,欧盟委员会促使公民社会参与欧盟的治理活动,并研究这些观念随着欧盟与公民社会关系的结构化是如何发生变化的。本文认为,不存在严密的规范性的理论方案,这导致人们赋予公民社会彼此矛盾的不同角色,结果不仅没有提升、反而降低了欧盟的民主程度。     

Judgment of age and attractiveness in a paired comparison task: Testing a picture set developed for diagnosing paedophilia

Purpose. The Not‐Real‐People picture set serves as stimulus material for assessing paedophilic sexual interest. The pictures were generated according to five stages of sexual maturation from infancy to adulthood. While experts seem to be able to discern between the pictures based on maturity levels for a nude variant of the stimuli, it remained unclear whether lay persons would be able to reliably distinguish between picture of clothed individuals from various maturity levels. Methods. Heterosexual university students (52 females, 50 males) participated in a paired comparison task, deciding which of the persons shown on two pictures was younger and which one was more attractive. Additionally, reaction times were recorded. Results. Both male and female judges were able to differentiate between stimuli from the opposite sex with regard to age: the perception of the stages of pubertal development conformed to a measurement on a ratio scale. Similarly, the decisions on attractiveness of the categories were in accordance with a ratio scale. Male participants favoured adolescent and adult female stimuli. Contrary to expectation, female participants did not show a preference for any single age category. Conclusions. The stimuli appear suitable for diagnostic purposes. The participants' decisions reflect the inherent maturity levels of the persons depicted. Reaction times in the paired comparison paradigm increase with task difficulty (i.e., similitude of pictures). The implications for indirect measures of sexual interest, based on reaction times, are discussed.     

The art of being “just right”: Language and gender—still a matter of power

In Norway the pioneering era in many ways is over with women in top politics and other important positions. After 25 years of explicit work towards equal opportunities for women and men, Norwegian society today seems to be characterized by “a declared equality”. Modern femininity and masculinity in a society where male dominance is illegitimate seem to be characterized by a common project: to hide the fact that men still dominate women. Women are socialized to communicate in specific ways and to choose conversational roles in interaction with men that contribute to concealing their subordinate position. This pattern may be described as the art of being “just right”.     

Behavioural and material determinants of production relations in agriculture

In this essay we develop a framework for analysing the major institutions governing the production and exchange of output and the primary factors of production in rural areas. The analysis incorporates general considerations of risk and information constraints jointly with the principal material attributes of agriculture and of agricultural production factors. The framework is used to analyse barriers to the existence of the major intertemporal and factor markets. It is applied specifically to land‐scarce environments for which it provides an internally consistent explanation for many of the well‐documented institutional features of such settings. In addition, the analysis provides new implications for, among other phenomena, the inter‐relationships among ownership holdings, operational scale, family size and factor productivity; for the scarcity of animal rental markets and use of animals as collateral; for the renting out of land by small landowners; and for the existence of plantations for certain crops.     

The impact of forced forensic psychiatric confinement on composition and structure in the personal networks of personality-disordered forensic psychiatric patients

This study explored to what extent the composition and structure of personal networks of personality-disordered forensic psychiatric patients changed before and after forced confinement in a forensic psychiatric centre. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 36 patients and selected members of their networks were examined. During forensic psychiatric treatment, patients reported a decrease in network size, in the number of high-risk network members, and in the number of social ties between these high-risk network members. Personal relationships were of shorter duration, with lower levels of contact frequency and reciprocity. No changes were observed in the patients’ companionship, practical and emotional support networks. During forensic psychiatric treatment, patients reported some new relationships, especially with persons outside the forensic psychiatric centre. Information on compositional and structural personal network factors over time helps forensic mental health professionals to properly assess and manage the important dynamic social network conditions associated with recidivism.     

Rebellion without a shot—peaceful conflict management in Ecuador

Most conflict studies focus on the causes of war and violence. In contrast, this article on Ecuador explores the causes of peace in a country with strong conflict fault lines, a political army and several deep political crises during the last two decades. The article suggests that focusing on domestic capabilities for peaceful conflict management provides a new entry point to explaining why peace is sustained. An important aspect lies in the role of the armed forces and of civil society. Theories on civil-military relations provide an understanding of why armed forces intervene. However, there is less analysis of factors that influence political armies' behaviour in terms of the use or non-use of violence. This is the focus of this article. Furthermore, the article asks why actors in civil society opt for non-violent strategies. In summary, the article analyses the capabilities for peaceful conflict management of national actors—particularly of the armed forces and of civil society—through a focus on their behaviour in three recent political crises, and by tracking the influence of historical experiences, cultural context and the structural and institutional framework on their behaviour.